This invention relates to improved tools and more particularly to tools adapted for removing and/or installing items mounted on rotatable shafts.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, tightening bolts, nuts or the like that are mounted on the axis of a rotatable shaft can present considerable difficulty unless the shaft is secured to prevent its rotation. Thus, for example, if one end of an unsecured shaft is threaded to receive a mating member, any attempt to tighten the mating member is met with rotation of the shaft, and there may be little or not restraining torque on the shaft against which the mating member can act.
An example of the foregoing problem is found in situations in which a nut is employed to secure the flywheel of an engine onto its supporting/rotating shaft. An attempt to apply sufficient torque by a conventional wrench will cause the shaft to rotate and prevent the wrench from imparting sufficient operating torque to tighten the nut adequately or to loosen it.
Various proposals have heretofore been made for solving the above-stated problem. These include securing the shaft from rotation or temporarily affixing some portion of the torquing apparatus to some portion of the member mounted on the rotatable axis. Illustrative of the latter is the torque multiplication device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,310 which was granted to Robert P. Michaud on June 23, 1981. Other seemingly less related proposals are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,212,196 granted to R. L. Krieger et. al. on July 15, 1980 and 4,665,755 granted to R. F. Snyder on May 19, 1987. However, the mechanisms of these patents are relatively complex and expensive. Accordingly, there has continued to be a need for a tool that is relatively simple, compact, inexpensive and efficacious.